The figure of Wendigo is deeply rooted in Native American tribes, especially in the area of North America and Canada, where this being, sometimes humanoid , spectral and with a dark soul like the wings of a raven, seeks to quench his eagerness with human flesh.
The Wendigo is more than a legend.It is a representation of the moral meanness of man, of his vices and that abyss, which can often fall when is carried away by his instincts: for greed, anger and hunger.That is his realism and his anguishing trail of evil , who often takes his legend to take him to the world of film and television.We saw his reference, for example, in the latest production of "The Lone Ranger" .And his series appearances are famous for television like "Supernatural" or the very remarkable adaptation of "Hannibal" for the small screen (image that heads this article).
The Wendigo, a creature of the hungry winter
They say, in the region of the great lakes of Canada , that the Wendigo usually goes out on the coldest winter nights, which prefers the loneliness and silence of the forests, where it can hide and hunt its victims more skillfully.Has a human form, it is thin, deformed and sometimes it can show an antler very similar to that of deer.It also has claws and a cold heart; a vital organ that has lost any glimpse of humanity that could reside in it.
The reason why native tribes so often extolled Wendigo was because, in a way, it represented their most atrocious fear, the darkest part and immoral of the human being.The same one in which some men could fall during the most arid winters, when hunting was scarce and resources were minimal.Times when the human mind could go crazy and, simply, the desire to emerge for consuming human flesh.
From there, for example, there is a modern term known as Wendigo psychosis , a syndrome that implies that the person who He suffers it, he may suddenly experience an unstoppable desire to eat human flesh.Something tabu today and since the beginning of humanity, something that the assiniboine and the oj ibwa tried to represent in many of their dances and celebrations.Like the "wiindigookaanzhimowin", a type of dance practiced in times of famine to ward off the insatiable spirit of Wendigo.
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In nature too We often talk about animals that can become authentic Wendigos, as is the case of bears .After hibernation, they can wake up with an unstoppable hunger.It is so intense and uncontrollable, that have documented cases in which they have attacked or devoured specimens of the same species.
Today, legends do not stop weaving in multiple cities, where there is always a dense forest.We will always find, for example, with the typical story of a hunter that ended up getting lost in the thicket, that he could never find his way back and that, little by little, was transformed into something inhuman: in a Wendigo.A gray-skinned being , with sharp claws and flamboyant gaze, which was hidden among the trees to feed on the unsuspecting hikers who were walking through that area of the forest.
Chilling, there is no doubt.Maybe that attracted early interest in literary figures like HP Lovecraft. In the "Myths of Cthulhu" we see the Wendigo represented in the Arctic god Ithaqua .You also have an interesting account of Algernon Blacwood titled «Wendigo», where we can discover many of the nuances that we have revealed here.
As you can see, the essence of this legend is actually a curse, like a malevolent spirit that has those people left behind.carry by your instincts, by the darkest and most brutal part of the human being .Something to keep in mind and that also happens with creatures as disturbing as the incubations and sucubos, which attack people when they are most defenseless They are: during the dream.The incubation attacks have now been interpreted as a way to hide abuses in the same family.Instead of accusing the man who visited that girl or young man of his family who he abused, sheltered in the coward darkness, night pregnancies and traumas were attributed to those creatures of legend, when in fact it was the human being himself responsible for so much terror.Just like the Wendigo, the sucubo embodied the most despicable part of the people.
If you liked this h Istoria, we invite you to also know more mythological and disturbing aspects such as: The legend of Sko-Ella, the woman who scared the devil himself.
Image: Kamilla Savage
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